The past 5 years have seen an amazing growth in software being developed for and run on Linux. But increasingly this software has been bypassing the traditional methods of distro packaging and curated archives, instead they are adopting the use of containers, portable runtimes or application bundles to bring their software directly to users. From Big Data to tiny IoT, the interest and activity is moving up the stack into independent applications instead of distributions.

With the explosive growth of Docker for server workloads, Election for desktop applications, and the rise of Flatpak and Snaps for upstream packaging, the role of the distribution is facing a fundamental challenge, and with it the nature of the contributor community around it.

In this talk I will highlight some of the key challenges this shift poses to the Linux community and it’s contributors, including the solutions already coming into place and the opportunities they are opening up. With a focus on the various contributor roles in a traditional Linux distro, I will draw out a path for transitioning these communities into a post-distro era where their contributions are needed more than ever.